Up in smoke

Regrettably my Pub 'Tavarn Ty Elise', a little bar in the Breton countryside between Uhelgoad (Huelgoat) & Karaez (Carhaix), (Bro Gerne) Finistere, Breizh/Llydaw/Brittany/Bretagne burned down in the early hours of friday February 19, 2010. Thirty years of my life up in smoke, but in spite of that the phoenix has risen again and the red dragon is back.

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Sunday, 10 September 2017

Quite a day yesterday, had a10am appointment with my surgeon, he booked me a table for Jan 11; 3pm the two Irish ladies who have a house in Loqueffret entered the bar with Piau, a French singer from Montpellier, who left me her second album, she already gave me her first. In the evening a crowd of women friends came here for what they call their 'Tupperware' evening which it isn't really. Something happened that sickened me more than my chemotherapy: I was out of work for 3 y...ears due to a fire leading to a loss of custom as many of my customers come from afar and there was no way of knowing of the reopening other than f/b, I was also thrown out of the guide books, Over four years after the reopening they were returning to the fold, then calamity! I collapsed with diabetes, in the hospital they found three cancers which led to seven months hospitalization and another closure; I was advised not to work this year, but I couldn't miss out on August, my best month for the money it brings in, to work on the debts accumulated during 3 years and seven months out of work. By earning enough and with the help from friends I managed to put a bit aside, and with the agreement of the organizations to pay them back on a monthly basis. I looked up my bank a/c yesterday, there was nothing left, the bailiff ha called it in even though my debts are regularly reimbursed, my daughter has the dossiers to show the baillif for our rendezvous Wednesday afternoon when hopefully I can get him to reverse the decision.

Wales - W. Watkin Davies

Destiny of the Britons - Taliesin

Wales United

"If they decide to unite," he said, "they would be completely invincible. This nation would be fortunate....if they could accept one prince, and he a good one." - Gerallt Cymro (Giraldus Cambrensis)

The result was that the king, Henry II, with his mighty army, was forced to retreat, and in his anger he blinded his hostages and burned the churches.

Putting the Record Straight

At a time when the vast majority of the French abandoned their fate into the hands of Marshall Pétin, many Bretons chose, and that as early as 1940, to go to England to continue the fight. At the end of 1940 the Bretons made up 70% of the resistance while Brittany only comprises 7% of the French population. The resistance went on to attract more and more men and women, yet at the end of 1943, only six months before the Normandy landings, the Bretons still represented 40% of the Free French. This is not to forget the resistance in Brittany itself, a vast uprising of the whole people, which retained many German troops in the peninsula, for these, had they been allowed to reach the Normandy front, would have pushed the Allies back to sea. It is also thanks to the Bretons that France, whose authorities had massively collaborated with Nazi Germany from 1940 to 1944, could recover her honour. The brutal repression which was triggered after D-Day against all forms of Bretonness, seems all the more disgraceful.
Bernard Le Nail

Bethesda Chapel, Georgetown, Merthyr Tydfil

Joseph Parry worshipped in this chapel as a young boy before going "off to Philadelphia in the morning". One day I received a note from Margaret Roberts, Emrys's wife asking me to volunteer to help to clean it out, which I was happy to do. Later on John Jenkins had an office there and I used to go down to see him for a chat at lunch time."

W.H.I.P.P.E.T.

Richard Trevithithick Commemorative Plate

2004 Bi- Centenary Limited Edition No. 110 out of 200, a gift to me from Llinos Davis representing the school

Asst. Costermonger around the streets of Rhymni, Merthyr & Cwm Cynon ValleyIndustrial painter, Mid-Glam C.C.Storeman;night watchman;refuse collector;street cleaner;toilet attendant;brickie's,plasterer's,fitter's,roofer's mate;Town Hall caretaker;General handyman, Rhydycar Leisure Centre,all with Merthyr Borough CouncilShop Steward;Political Ward Branch Secretary;Constituency Membership Secretary;National Delegate;Area Organiser Welsh Language;County Council Candidate;Election Agent, Borough Council;member of Merthyr Tydfil and Ebbw Vale Rugby Clubs;member of Gellifaelog Bowls Club;life-long supporter of Merthyr Tydfil F.C., founder member of extra mural Welsh classes; signed Merthyr's 'Visitors' Book' after Charles and Di; moved to Brittany in 1979, landlord of 'Tavarn Ty Elise';voted in newspaper, person who comes to mind when one thinks of Brittany; more than one guide book refers to my Pub as an 'institution'; largest open air music festival in France conceived in my Bar. Helped to establish first 'Real Ale' micro-brewery in Brittany. Alan Stivell is my niece's godfather and my daughter's godmother is a daughter one of the 'Soeurs Gouadec';Yann Tiersen played in the pub;Jean-Claude Dreyfuss drank and acted in the pub for a video-clip.For my Wedding, the Merthyr Express sent over its Chief Reporter Melanie Doel and her photographer boyfriend Robert Haines. Best Man to George & Marilyn Quirk; Usher to Mike & Rhiannon Jones. Pall-bearer to Erwan Kervella. Grandfather to Goulwen, Glen & Awena.